Subsidy Publishing

Publishing Solutions for Today's Author

Traditional Publishing, also know as Trade Publishing or Commercial Publishing, involves a publisher contracting with an author for the rights to their book for a period of time. The publisher thoroughly edits the work making sure of character and location consistency, story flow, grammar, punctuation, etc. The book interior is then formatted and a cover designed. The book is then distributed and marketed.

Upfront costs of this process is incurred by the publisher who continues to pay for printing, distribution and marketing. Profit is split between the publishing house and the author based on the contracted rate. In some cases with known authors and celebrities an advance is paid by the publisher. This payment was originally designed to help the author live and pay bills while writing. It is re-cooped by the publisher out of the first proceeds of book sales.

Author royalties are traditionally 10-15%. When looking at this split it is often forgotten that the printing costs and wholesale discount alone can equal as much as 60% of the books price. Added to this are salaries for editors and other employees as well as publisher overhead and any marketing budget assigned to the release.

Dramatic changes in publishing over the past decade have reduced some costs associated with book publishing. Print on Demand (POD) has nearly eliminated the need to print and warehouse thousands of copies of a title. Computers, the internet, advanced printing methods have all reduced time and expense and eased entry into a traditionally slow-to-market industry. Because of the methods and speed in which books can be published we see more titles and more authors coming to market. This is good in that there are more books for readers to explore however, we also see a lack of quality flooding the shelves.

The Bottom of the Hill Traditional Publishing model is simple; we proof and edit your book, we format the interior and design a cover often using original art from one of our partnering artists, we assign an ISBN, add it to distribution channels with Ingram and make it available to the author at a wholesale rate.

We have recognized that a great number of authors own established platforms (networks) and can effectively and efficiently reach readers. For this reason Bottom of the Hill does not marketing books. We do have a marketing partner who can design and develop your website, help with social media & marketing, design posters, flyers, email campaigns and more. If you are interested in book marketing let us know or contact them here.

This process generally takes up to a month depending on the state of the manuscript supplied. If a more comprehensive edit, greater story development or other revisions are believed to be needed we will advise the author.

Subsidy Publishing is not our favorite publishing option however, it can be useful for authors who understand that their book will probably not sell thousands of copies (95% of all books ever published never sell more than 5,000 copies) but enjoy writing and will give their books as gifts or sell them at events. Many of today’s authors support their writing passion by attending events and festivals and signing and selling their works. For them Subsidy Publishing or Self Publishing are viable options.